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Friday, January 04, 2013

Something Macro This Way Comes

I have been itching for some macro shooting lately. Perhaps it was part of me that was yearning to use the Olympus gear after all my street shooting with Sony. I do not just dedicate myself to street photography alone. The reason I do so much street photography is because it is a lot easier, does not require too much effort, and I can do it anytime. However, photography is such a vast ocean, street photography is just an island somewhere out there. There is so much more to explore, and I shall be running toward something more familiar to myself since my early days of dabbling with photography: macro.

Macro photography requires a lot more planning, stronger fundamental understanding and control of camera, efficient lighting control and a great deal of stamina. The satisfaction from a great macro shooting session is worth more than 10 ordinary street photography sessions combined. This is true, at least for myself. On the other hand, macro shooting is a heck lot more physically exhausting and time consuming.

The following shots were taken about 2 years ago, during my review of the Olympus E-5.

All images were taken with Olympus DSLR E-5 and ZD 50mm F2 macro lens.

Great shots... even the bugs pose for you when you shoot! I love the dragonfly shot... its like a helicopter getting ready to take off. Macro is definitely the way to go for more fun and stunning pictures!

Thks Robin, it must be quite a bright morning to achieve such results, I wonder how you hold your camera to be able to achieve such a stillness on those images? I find myself shooting macro with e-pl3 + 60mm lens is a kind of difficult to hold still (low success rate), probably due to the camera grip size, LCD and/or the IS system? Do you agree that shooting macro of moving subjects, like bees, is much better to use "dslr" style of cameras?

With the extremely fast focusing on E-PL3 I would say it should be no problem shooting the above images, even if they were constantly moving. And yes it was very bright, and shutter speed was not an issue. I don't think DSLR cameras can handle the situation better, since most macro lenses will have much slower focusing capabilities. The 60mm macro you have is probably one of the best focusing macro lenses in the world at this moment.

In my style of serious macro shooting, if you have read in many of my writings, I shoot in full manual exposure mode, wireless flash, and full manual focus. If that is the case, all the cameras would behave similarly, if the same lens was being used.

All macro shots are awesome, Robin. In term of composition, stillness and vision, you are right on target.As a non-macro shooter yet, I still prefer the 4th shot which will be cemented in your memory forever for the time you took those other shots.Great work.Happy weekend and happy shooting.I am at home today as my 'boat' leaking...(lady issue). I have to take care of her.John Ragai